itals] is seated on a rock, dandling a
young monster. On the edge of the opposite side of the frozen lake
stands a spirit, who is just about to endure the frozen torment;
and his attitude and countenance express the agony of extreme cold.
Behind him opens the fiery gulf, the reflection of whose lurid
glare is seen on his half-frozen body. At his feet a female head,
fixed in the ice, looks up to the flames, as longing for their
warmth; while a little way within the lake of fire another head is
seen gazing with longing eyes upon the ice. A brilliant fountain of
flame is in the midst of the lake, and around it crowds of
condemned spirits in all varieties of suffering. In one corner a
fiend is proclaiming their infamy by the aid of a trumpet through
all the depths of Hell. Birds and animals of hideous form and evil
omen are fluttering over the heads and tormenting the sufferers.
Large icicles hang from the rocks that form the Gate of Hell, and
reflect on their bright surface the red glare of the fires within.
On the left of Minos is seen a Skeleton ascending a column of
Icicles and holding a standard bearing these lines:

"'To this grim form our cherished limbs have come,
And thus lie mouldering in their earthly home.
In turf-bound hillock or in sculptured shrine
The worms alike their cold caresses twine.
So far we all are equal; but once left
Our mortal weeds, of vital spark bereft,
Asunder farther than the poles we're driven--
Some sunk to deepest Hell, some raised to highest Heaven.'

"Still farther on the left of Minos, and melting into distance
behind him, is seen the shadowy region of Purgatory. Four bright
stars--the Cardinal Virtues--give a delicate and cheering light
amid the gloom. A group of figures loaded with the burthen of their
sins are about to plunge into the lake of purgatorial waters, in
the hope of depositing them there. A boat wafted by the wings of an
Angel is bearing departed, souls toward Heaven; and near it is a
column of pale light to direct its course. In the distance is the
mountain that divides Purgatory from Heaven; and Beatrice, the
departed mistress of Dante, is standing on its summit, encouraging
him to proceed with her to Heaven, where his former guide, Virgil,
cannot be admitted (be